John Lee

The man on the left holding a martini glass, early on a Sunday morning, is John Lee. I took this photo during my camping trip to Auga Caliente this spring. This was the first time I had met this person that everyone was talking about. He was described as a fun-going party-animal. He was happy that not everybody left Sunday morning, so he walked into his big motor home and brought out some expensive tequila for everyone to share, and share we did. This was the kind of person John Lee was. Generous. He lived in a nice house in Orange County, owned a bar and houseboat in Needles, CA on the Colorado River and had his own plane which he piloted. Two weeks ago I went to a party in O.C. with some friends and John Lee let us spend the night at his house. Except he wasn't there. He said the front door would be open so just walk in. We did just that and then played pool in his basement before passing-out a 5 AM. What a nice person he was to let us use his house. Well, I just found out yesterday that John Lee died in a plane crash. He was co-piloting his plane when it crashed and burned during take-off in Needles. He and one other passenger died - the pilot is in critical condition. Even though I had only met John Lee once, I was shocked and sadened. Here was a person with everything, including two young children, sadly enough, who everybody liked and respected, and now he is gone. Very sad. So have a drink in his memory - that's what I'm doing now.